The 700
by kanekichigo
Summary: "Watch where you're goin' ya clumsy-...!" A drone rolled around to face me and scan my Psycho Pass. 'Stupid drones gettin' in my way...' Some Psycho Pass drabble.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the anime, Psycho Pass or any of it's characters. The rightful owners of this anime and it's characters are Madman Entertainment, Funimation, and Manga Entertainment.

—

"Crap!" *thud*

"Watch where you're goin' ya clumsy-...!"

A drone rolled around to face me and scan my Psycho Pass. Stupid drones gettin' in my way... The dumb thing rolled away like I was some random civilian with a normal Criminal Coefficient and Hue. These guys need to up their game, ha ha! Good thing I found one of that Makishima guy's helmet's lying around in the rain the other day, or else they would have found me out and I'd be shot by a Dominator on the spot.

Noticing the woman whose Coefficient my helmet was copying was leaving the convenience store, I quickly, but stealthily, followed her to an intersection that I didn't know of. I broke off from her and crouched near a random group of guys with low Coefficients before one of the street scanners caught me.

I crouched against a corner behind a bush that thankfully didn't have a street scanner in it to take a breather. These helmets were damn good at concealing coefficients but they were so itchy! I didn't even know how Makishima's supporters could even stand it. I guess its worth not having your whole body consumed by some weird deteriorating ammo that looks like a portal into space or being literally blown up 'til you explode...

I pulled the helmet off of my head and shook my black and red hair out. It feels good to not have the thing stuck on my head 24/7. Ever since the riot with Makishima started, It's been easier to find hiding places where drones aren't at and instead bunched up in the masses at so many other crime scenes. "Heh, stupid drones..."

Damn, I wish I could take that back...

A drone came around the corner I was leaning on and stopped to scan me. Crap! Again!? The helmet! But it was too late, before I'd even thought of getting it, the drone had already found out what my "real" Criminal Coefficient and Hue was. it's sirens blared and shone so bright I had to feel around for my book bag before I booked it. I could hear the group of guys running off as I did the same. One of them with a red hoodie said, "Dude, I thought you said this place was clear?!" Another, wearing a black leather jacket stuttered, "I-I did! Can't get some solitude anywhere these days, can we?"

Those Sibyl guys or whoever they are probably already got my info and are searching for me like hound dogs, Dominators and all.

Stupid system, look what you got me into. Stupid cops, I know you won't believe me even if I try to explain myself 'cause you all worship the Sibyl System. Stupid Japan...why are you all so ignorant to what you created?

Whelp! Tell me whaddya think? Should I continue or not?


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer in Chapter 1**

_I hear its hard for street scanners to scan Coefficients at night 'cause their night vision is crap..._, I thought to myself. That was somewhat good news. In order to get back to the Ditch I need to take the subway and there's street scanners everywhere there.

I kept sprinting as fast as I could down 3rd street and away from the abandoned intersection. It didn't sound abandoned anymore, as I could hear and see the commotion and lights of detectives, Dominators, drones, and vans searching for who set them off. Like I said, they're all stupid. If they really can't track down a 14 year old with a Coefficient of 300 then they aren't real detectives.

I turned the corner down Zealous street and spotted the stairs to the subway. I read the sign from where I crouched.

**UNDERGROUND SUBWAY: ➡ KATETSU**** STATION ****嘉鉄 駅**

_Yep. This is the one._

I stealthily crawled my way to the top of the stairs, then quickly made my down and away from the base before any passersby thought I looked suspicious. I would have said today must've been my lucky day because the train was there when I arrived but based on...recent events...and the fact that the station was kinda packed, I held back. As I made my way to the doors of the train I was boarding, I noticed a smell that seemed quite familiar. It smelled alot like wood burning or pine. I dunno. But it reminded me of the days when I still lived with my mom and dad. It was a nice scent and I was hoping it wouldn't go away but it disappeared when I boarded the train.

_All that's behind me now. Mom's long gone and my sorry excuse of a dad's in America, probably not even knowing his wife is dead._

In earlier days, I would've been grinning happily while thinking about my mom and dad and the times we had together, but now just the thought makes my eyes water with negative and heart-wrenching emotions.

There were more people on the train than I had expected. Since Makishima was out drawing every form off attention known to man, I assumed these people were either families escaping the danger or other criminals with high Coefficients avoiding getting arrested. The latter almost made me shiver with the thought that any of these people could kill me dead at any moment. I held my composure though, remembering that JJ had taught me some martial arts and a bit of boxing when I first joined up with the Ditch.

_Speaking of, J's probably gonna kick my butt to next year when I get back...better avoid contact._

JJ was not particularly sympathetic so if I were to cause more trouble, she would always be the first one on my case. She is hard on me most if not all of the time but she's the only one who at least tries to keep me in check. She was with me from day one, when she found me in a freezing rain in the alley of a closed gun shop one winter, no shoes and no jacket to keep me warm. Shelley raised me when I was young and made me into what I am today. The redhead teenage latent criminal walking the streets to get to the Ditch before she got caught for real this time.

And yeah I thank her a thousand times for helping me survive, but I probably won't be in 5 minutes when I have a black eye and possibly broken ribs. You see, I'm actually part of the reason how the Ditch got its name. One of the major rules of being in the Ditch was to stay **in** the Ditch and don't wander or else we get caught. A month after I joined, I still hadn't learned that. So I decided to go out and buy dinner one day from a restaurant I used to always go to. Fortunately for the staff, I didn't know that restaurants had Coefficient scanners inside them. Mine just so happened to be 250 at the time, so when buzzers went off revealing there was a latent criminal among the crowd, I immediately ran for the Ditch. In the process, I almost revealed our position, and if it hadn't rained that day, I would've.

The Ditch is a giant cavern in the ground with tunnels that span across different places around the town. It was basically my fault that we had to dig a new cavern, Fill up the old one. And re-dig our entrance and tunnels. This whole dilemma was why people hated me and didn't care for my presence for months after the incident. To this day, there are still some who don't forgive me for almost getting them shot by Dominators. Now, I contemplate how I'll talk away those pissed-off looking faces when I walk down the tunnel of guards to the metal and wood doors of the Ditch's main cavern.

**What will happen when she enter's the Ditch? Is JJ going to actually kick her butt into next week? Or will the others beat her to it? Find out in the next chapter of The 700, coming out Who Knows When, 2015.**

**Vote, Comment, Follow =)**

**By the way, if something is wrong with the Japanese I put by the name of the train station, tell me so I can fix it. I used Google Translate and their translations are crap.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer in Chapter 1**  
-

"Well look what the Detectives dragged in..."

"Oh look, the Child of the Corn is back..."

"I wonder what she did this time..."

A few glares from Evan and his crew, some snark comments from J's best friend Adam, and add in a shove or two from some random muscle man. These were things I faced daily when I came back to the Ditch, and J was usually the only one to carry the burden of standing up for me.

Before, when people didn't mind me around, they all protected me like I was their own kid. They treated me like family and accepted me. Now that I've almost endangered all of their lives, I meant as much to them as roadkill. Now they all assumed they shouldn't trust me or any other kid for that matter because since we all didn't seem to know how to lay low, we would get all of them killed. I didn't really blame them though, people didn't like me much when I was still in school because I was so noisy and talkative back then, its not gonna be any different now.

"Hey dunce, did you at least bring something back to eat?" Adam said, slowly making his way towards me. Adam obviously didn't like me and hadn't since the day we were almost caught. He hated me the most because my carelessness got his girlfriend shot. I'd given up on apologizing because I knew no amount of 'sorry's could ever make up for a lost life. I just didn't understand what about making me miserable would make him feel any better or change anything.

Lately, our food supply had been running low, which was even more bad than usual for us at a time like then because with Sybil out looking for criminals in this chaos, we could've easily been spotted. Any person who came back with food got jumped immediately and our leader, Angelo, was always the one who had to stop the commotion. Today was definitely no different.

Adam had already snagged the bag of Golden Duck and started sifting through to see what he wanted while everyone else in the room was slowly being drawn towards the area by the delicious aroma of Chinese takeout.

"Don't be picky, just grab something," someone says.

"Look man, I'm hungry, hurry up."

"Adam, would you just-!"

The voice was cut off by an angry looking JJ shoving the crowded people out of the way to get to Adam. When she finally did, she delivered a quick and hard punch to his face and I heard his nose crack as he was caught off guard and fell to the floor. Everyone else must've too because their eyes went wide.

"Ow! What the hell is wrong with you, J!?" Adam yelled looking up with bewilderment.

J shouted in her loudest voice, "No! What the hell is wrong with _you_!? How could you _seriously_ sit there and take food from a _kid_!? Especially one who worked her behind off to get that food in the first place!"

The lingering crowd trailed back to watch the argument unfold. These two were almost inseparable, so it was unusual to see this bad a fight between them.

"She's a kid, she looks healthier than us! She can skip a meal or two once in a-"

SMACK!

Silence filled the air.

"Hey, Jicennia!" A smooth, slightly deep voice was heard from above, on the first floor rails. J slowly turned around. "You really should learn to stop punching people so much. One day you might just break your fingers."

It was Angelo.

He made a slight, barely visible gesture that told her to come upstairs and follow him. I was kinda nervous, not because I thought I was in trouble, but because I knew J was in trouble. Angelo even called her by her full name, which I knew she hated because she said it was "too girly and ridiculous".

J quickly twisted back around, snatched the bag of food from Adam and shoved it into my arms. Before walking off, she stared into my eyes like she wanted to tell me something, a warning maybe. But all she said was, "Take the food and go back to our room. Lock the door..." She then forced a small smile. "And save me some."

I replied with an "Ok."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer in Chapter 1**

* * *

"J, I still can't believe you actually hooked up with him," I heard Ava start. "When I said you two would be a cute couple, I didn't mean go after him."

Since the incident with Adam 3 days ago, everybody and their mothers have been either teasing me about my relationship with Angelo or asking me useless questions, like "How do his abs look?" or "How did he 'punish' you?" or, one question that Ava asks me every five seconds, "Does he treat you right?" Of course he does, ha! After the show I put on the other day, he knows I'm not someone he'd want to make mad. Although, he also knows that him and Ava are the only ones who can calm me down when I go on a rampage.

Ange is a nice guy. People think he's all business and leader role, but I know he's the exact opposite, kinda shy most of the time. It's like that one cinnamon roll meme...on the outside he looks a bit like he could kill you and definitely acts like it but on the inside, when he's hanging out with friends and _not_ dealing with the stress of having to watch over the Ditch, he's the gooey center of a fresh hot cinnamon roll. As a matter of fact, I don't even know how he became the leader of this place with that soft attitude (Get it? Soft?...No? Okay.).

Even if he's a cinnamon roll though, he can still be serious, and he definitely knows how to pack a punch. As a matter of fact, he's the one who taught me all the karate I know! But on this particular day, he sure as heck wasn't acting like the cinnamon roll Ditch leader I knew. You can thank Adam the Asshat for what happened this day.

"Hey, crazy. How ya doin'?" I heard a soft but sudden voice breathe in my ear. My instincts spoke before my brain did and I elbowed the intruder in the chest.

I heard an 'ow' just as I turned around to see who it was, and realized the person I hit had been Angelo.

"Where's the nearest hospital? I think my girlfriend just stabbed through my lung..." he said, rubbing his chest in pain.

"Oh, you big baby, you'll be fine."

"You've got a feisty one there, boss!" Adam comes to bother us.

"Perverted freak, go back to your room."

"Calm yourself, she'd probably rip my eyeballs out before I took another step."

"Damn right I would," I scoffed.

"What'd you come here for anyways?" Ange started.

"Is that any way to treat a loyal subordinate who has worked so hard-?"

"Stop that right now," he demanded. "Your sarcasm isn't needed, _Adam._"

"Touchy, or nah?"

"You know, you weren't this annoying when we still lived in America," he went on. Angelo's tone seemed to get slightly louder. "What happened?"

"I dunno, maybe I'm just glad to be able to get away from that place," Adam's voice became serious.

"Yeah? Well don't thank me."

"Why not? You let me go with you."

"Actually, no, you snuck on the ferry, and I didn't want you to come with us in the first place."

"Why is that?"

"Because do you know how hard it is to deal with someone like you?" I knew Angelo was going to get in the details, so I backed off and let him blow off his steam.

"Its pretty obvious, don't ya think?" he scoffed. "I mean why in the hell would I even bother taking a traitor with me on a runaway trip to Japan!? The traitor who was supposed to be my best friend for life but threw me away to play hooky with his drug junkies in high school. That's why!" He calmed down, but by then the whole room was eavesdropping.

"Do you have any idea how I felt when you said those words to me in front of my house that day? 'Angelo, I've got better things to do than be your babysitter', you said. I thought, you must have had a bad day or something but, two weeks later and you've completely stopped calling me, or even replying to my voice messages. You left me alone so I did the same with you. If you wanted to go to Japan so bad then you should've asked Evan. He was rich enough to buy your crack, he could've bought your plane ticket too."

After he let Angelo speak, he sarcastically commented,"So your true colors leak out...If you're trying to be intimidating it's definitely not wo-"

_CRACK!_

The crack of Adam's jaw and possibly a tooth ripping out could be heard all throughout the caverns of the Ditch, and he fell to the ground as he was caught off guard. Angelo's uppercut hit him and hit him _hard_. While everyone gaped, my immediate thoughts were to check Angelo's hand, so I did. I wasn't surprised to see it was turning purple, bleeding, and had a crooked finger.

I grabbed him and Ava, who looked at me in surprise but didn't realize I actually kind of needed her right now, and dragged them by their wrists to the washroom.

"Sit here and don't move," I pointed at the floor and hoped I didn't sound too angry, but I was pretty irritated with the world right now because I was the one who had to deal with this since the leader of a group of 70 Americans wasn't able to keep himself from getting an infection.

I left to get the first aid kit and was surprised when I came back to find Ava rinsing off Angelo's hand in the sink and them making small talk. I figured out of all the people who would disapprove of me being with someone like him, it would be Ava, but I definitely guessed wrong. Either way, I was also kinda happy.

"I'm glad to see you two are getting along nicely just don't try to steal my boyfriend Ava," I said with slight humor in my voice. Angelo looked at me with a 'Really?' face like he was saying it was pretty obvious they would never date with the age difference going on.

The first aid kit came back to my mind and I felt my expression dim some, but I didn't care. I had a reason for being pissed.

Ava moved out of the way and I sat down in front of Angelo with an expression of concentration, thought, and irritation, and I could feel their eyed looking at me with worry.

"You okay, J?" He was the first one to break the looming tension and I immediately snapped, "What the hell kinda question is that? What were you thinking back there?"

* * *

**Don't expect the next chapter to be all that great because even though I've read a lot of smut, I know I'm gonna be HORRIBLE at writing a love scene...**


	5. Chapter 5

JJ's POV  
-

"I was just asking a question, babe. If you're mad -"

I interrupted.

"Mad? More like pissed the hell off," I said in a tone that matched my mood.

"Angelo, you're the leader of the Ditch, you've got to have a little self-control."

"I'm sorry...sorry. I couldn't help it. His annoyance and his fake obliviousness, he was doing it all on purpose and it made me want to rip his fu-" I silenced him with a peck on the cheek.

"So you _don't_ hate me?"

"Well I don't _hate_ you." I asked. "You're my boyfriend. I wanna drop-kick you for what you just pulled out there but, I understand."

I was a little caught off guard when he scooted back onto the bed we were sitting on and took me with him, but I was fine with it, and relaxed in his arms. I sighed.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Heh...yeah," I replied with a smirk he couldn't see from behind me. He began running his fingers through my jet black hair. The nice feeling made me want to go to sleep, and I yawned.

"Don't fall asleep on me, now." Ange's voice made my eyes flutter back open. "Come on, talk to me. What's on your mind?"

"Ugh...you know I hate when people ask me that."

"Oh yeah? Why?"

"What goes on in my head is no one else's business but mine, that's why."

"But I'm your boyfriend, you _have _to tell me."

"That's not gonna be your excuse for everything is it?" I asked. "Cause eventually its not going to be effective."

"Come on, I want you to tell me more about you. I want to know more about why my girlfriend's so crazy."

We haven't been able to talk in a while, so I decided, might as well.

-  
Ava's POV  
-

"So scrub, what's up?" Adam drops himself down beside me at the table with a devious look on his face, so I slide away a few inches.

"Don't get so defensive, now, I just want to, uh...talk," he said with a fake smile.

I knew he didn't want to _talk_, he just came over here to bother me like he usually does. That's what the older guys and girls do to entertain themselves. They have nothing else better to do than be booze stealing assholes.

"So, Addie, or whatever your name is -"

"It's Ava. Get it right, bastard." I was so happy I said that. My name is the simplest thing ever to memorize, so he's either just being purposefully stupid, or is actually dumb as hell. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter was the case...

"Watch your mouth you little shit!"

I immediately stood up and speed walked with balled fists towards the entry to the stairwell. Apparently I wasn't walking fast enough because five seconds later, the hood of my jacket was yanked back and I was spun around and facing Adam again.

"I'm gonna murder you..." he glared, and I glared back.

I didn't like that idea, so I immediately took my right foot and shoved it up between his crotch, making sure to do what JJ said and point the toes up so it hurt. I hopped a bit on my left leg but I finally regained balance. The sound he made when my foot met his berries was like music to my ears.

My silent triumph was suddenly ended when he suddenly dragged me down with him as he fell, making me get a little worried. My first instinct was to take off my jacket and get away, so I did, leaving my book bag behind in the process.

_Crap! That had my sketchbook in it._

I thought it was a good idea to keep it with me at all times instead of leaving it in my room where pretty much anyone could get it, but I was wrong.

_I need to get that back later...and find a lock or something._

The whole reason I carried that bag with me was because everyone is a sneak in the Ditch. Leave something sentimental, like a sketchbook around and next thing you know, it's either gone or on display in the main room. That's especially bad for me because I'm about that short life (can't believe I just thought that...) so I'd have trouble getting something of mine back from someone tall.

I scrambled backwards on my hands and feet on the ground. Thinking the first thing Adam would do when he recovered from that kick was come after me, I got up and ran upstairs to the room, locking the makeshift padlock behind me so no one else would come in.

Out of slight relief, I leaned against the door and slid down to the floor. My relief dissipated when I heard a snore from across the room.

_Dammit!_

JJ and Angelo were across the room cat napping in J's bed.


	6. Chapter 6

'Come on, not today out of all days!'

The fact that they picked today to be all lovey dovey in bed was just irritating! I knew exactly what was going to happen. Adam comes after me, finds the room, and bangs on the door until he wakes up JJ and Angelo. Next thing you know, J's blown her top off and Adam is lying on the floor unconscious.

I knew how all fights with J went and and I did NOT feel like dying of asphyxiation that day because I woke up sleeping beauty and the prince. So I did the smart thing and got out.

I quickly unlocked the padlock and made my way to the top of the stairs, but froze when I heard Adam's voice in the distance.

"Come here, you little runt!" I heard him yell in anger. "Where the hell are you at?!"

I ran down the stairs and into the main room again, then went to the left, where the kitchen was and snuck behind the big stand where the cooks usually hand out food. I waited there, back against the cold metal, listening to the chatter of the people at the tables, hoping none of them had noticed me. My question was answered when the sound of Adam's hand hitting the surface of the stand hard made me hit my head against the edge of it and scramble to get up.

"Where're ya goin', huh? You think you can get away from me?" he seethed. I could tell that kick really hurt because he was still limping when he advanced towards me.

_Hey, I deserve a blackbelt for that, hehe._

But now was not the time to think about that. Especially since the angry footsteps of JJ were heard coming down from the second floor.

"Who the hell was it this time, huh?" Everyone knew what she meant since they all had witnessed the whole ordeal between Adam and I. She was angry that our ruckus woke her and Angelo up from their slumber.

She looked around until she spotted us and came over with a menacing look.

"Are you serious? What the hell is going on that you would make all this unnecessary noise?"

"Chill Nia, we were just foolin' around," he said with a menacing grin. "You can go back to doing the hanky panky with your boyfriend now."

JJ grabbed Adam by his tattered dark green shirt and spammed him as hard as she could into the nearest wall.

"You watch your mouth or you'll be on crutches by tomorrow," she said with a growl.

"Woah, scary!" Adam faked before shoving JJ off of him. "You aren't as scary as you may try to make yourself out to be okay?"

"You're one to freakin talk! You act all high and mighty like -"

_Tap...tap tap...tap…_

The sound came suddenly from the tunnel entrance to the Ditch. It gradually got louder until Angelo appeared, walking towards the door.

"Adam check the door," he ordered, caution strung in his voice.

"Why me, man? Why can't you -"

"Just open the damn door, Adam!"

"Alright bossman…" Adam said sulking towards the newly installed iron door of half a year. It was fairly big too, and the day it arrived here, we were all surprised that two of our own had come with the door, extra iron, and welding tools.

'_This must be our lucky day_,' I thought to myself then.

Adam slid the hatch for communication open and said, "What's the damn password?"

Silence.

There was no sound except for the quiet but heavy breathing of someone at the door.

"Alright everybody grab a weapon, we don't know who this could be!" Angelo shouted across the room. In the next minute, everyone had either a chair or some other makeshift weapon at the ready, in case the visitor was an intruder. I had grabbed a pen and pencil out of my pockets, holding them in each of my fists, and beside me, JJ had grabbed a leftover piece of glass from a fight last week.

"Okay, Adam open the door," Angelo commanded. So he slowly creaked the door open. The intruder was…

"A kid?..."


	7. Chapter 7

**~ IMPORTANT A.N. ~**

**Okay so I realized like halfway through making this entire story that I personally just didn't like the names of the characters I initially had, so I decided to change them:**

**Angelo Dennis**

**Jicennia (JJ/J) Parisia (Paris)**

**Jodie Gertie**

**Ava Ava**

**Adam Adam**

**This chapter is more than ⅔ longer than usual so ENJOY!**

_"Okay, Adam open the door," Angelo (Dennis) commanded. So he slowly creaked the door open. The intruder was..._

_"A kid?..."_

"What's a kid doing here?" Denis mumbled. "Ava, did you close the tunnel off when you came back?"

"Yeah, I'm sure I did," I replied, worry probably plastered on my face. I wouldn't be surprised if I really hadn't though. I have a bad habit of not remembering whether I've done something I was supposed to do and turning out to not have done it, so in truth, its possible that I really was one who let this kid in.

Back to the elephant in the room, this kid first off, didn't look more than my age, and secondly, was leaning against the grimy cement walls of the sewer system outside like he was on the verge of death. Judging by his current condition, he most likely was.

His red jacket was dull and tattered, holes ripped, his loosely hanging jeans were in the same condition is hair was, messy and dull, and his skin was severely scratched up in many places. He had scars, as well as fresh and old wounds wrapped in blood-crusted bandages. A thick purple and black splotched ring adorned his left eye, while his right eye was reddened, like he'd lost a crapton of sleep in the past few days. I honestly would say he has. All half of us could do was stare at how badly beat up and broken he looked.

"Ava, go get the nurse," Dennis ordered. I obeyed and ran down the tunnels various tunnels of the Ditch until I found the makeshift door made of planks and random pieces of metal and had a red Cross spray painted on it. The sign said "OUT FOR LUNCH", but it was about 7pm so of course we all knew she was just sleeping early.

The door was tied closed from the I side and after knocking a few times, I gave up and decided to just kick the damn thing open. After a few kicks, I heard light footfalls and gave the nurse a chance to swing it open.

"Ava, what the hell is your problem?!" She yelled angrily.

"No time for that, Gertie, lets go," I said and hurriedly grabbed her hand to drag her back to the mail hall.

Gertie's eyes almost bulged out of her head when she saw the kid. She started shoving everyone out of the way and going through the crap like of stuff she had in the medical bag she brought with her.

She immediately began her work on him, telling whoever was closest to her to get her a gurney. After 10 vigorous minutes of cleaning the kid down and wrapping his arms in fresh bandages, Dennis and another random guy carried the kid back down the hallways.

I stared after the trio as they left, hoping to whoever would listed that this kid would live. Yes, he was probably some Japanese foreigner from this city that could be a great danger to us, but he looked like just a kid. I hoped Dennis, Paris, and everyone else would spare him the same mercy they did me when I showed up here out of nowhere.

"Hey, Ava," Paris suddenly nudged me from her spot to the right of me. "You think he'll live?"

"I...I honestly don't know, Par..." And it was true. On the one hand, he looked like he's been through hell and back but could survive more. On the other hand though, he was beaten and bruised so badly and lying there half conscious, you would almost classify that as dead.

"You're worried, aren't you," Paris asked, curiously.

"Well of course I am," I snapped.

"He could be a danger to us," she said matter-of-factly. "And if you end up siding with him or some stupid-"

"Well if 'siding with him' is a stupid idea then maybe I'm stupid," I said, interrupting her. "Besides, I'm American, I do and day stupid stuff."

"Being American isn't an excuse."

"Well it is in my book...it's true after all." I stared down at the ground, reflecting for a few seconds on how in the world we got here and survived this long. "We were stupid to come to Japan in the first place and we were stupid to make this crap hole our home, 'cause...we'll eventually get caught."

"Well when you say it like that, we're sure to be discovered," Paris said monotonously and nudged me again, this time harder, as if she were telling me 'watch yourself'.

* * *

For three days, I paced my room and the tunnels of the Ditch, pondering what would happen when this mystery kid woke up and what in the world had happened to him in the first place for.

'Where did all those cuts come from first of all. No one seems to use a sword here, and I don't see any bushes around that he could have hidden in hat were sharp enough to do that kind of damage. He had a black eye so I assume he was beat up, but by who? I don't know of any gangs in this town. Then again, we don't know anyone in this town except for a few ramen shop owners and an employee at a grocery store who supplies us with unsold food,' I thought to myself one day as I laid on my bed in the room Paris and I shared.

My theories were all jumbled up and I couldn't make complete sense of them, so I continued my confusion until Paris suddenly kicked my bed, almost making the mattress slide across the room.

"Butthole," I mumbled under my breath.

"What?"

"Nothing..."

...

"Are you that concerned about him?" She said in a surprisingly irritated tone.

I really was, and I couldn't see why /she/ wasn't. That boy was a bloody mess when he popped up down here out of nowhere. I couldn't see how anyone wasn't feeling pitiful for him.

"Why aren't you?" I replied with a scowl.

"I have my reasons, kid, what are yours?"

"Did you even think about what I asked you?" she added suddenly.

I knew she was referring to three days ago, when she reminded me that he could be dangerous. I knew, what she meant, but I didn't care.

Her obvious refusal to be on my side in this situation Angered me almost to the core. Turning over in my bed, I ignored question and decided to sleep off my confusion and irritation.

I woke up at two in the morning the next day from a nightmare about being strapped to a gurney and wrapped in beige, bloody and worn bandages, unable to breathe.

When my eyes snapped open, a gloved hand covered my mouth and I moved my head to the side to see who it was. My expression of fear turned into relief and then anger when I realized it was Paris. I was still mad at her for the things she said to me the other night, but half of that anger had already worn off.

I smacked her hand away and she pulled me up by my shirt collar.

"Stubborn kid, get up, I've got something for ya."

I glared at her in the dark, knowing she probably couldn't see it. "Hey remember that time when you called me by my real name?"

"Shut up, let's go," she said, sounding kind of bored by what was going on. She then let go of my collar and yanked me up by my wrist before I fell back down, causing me to let out a slight yelp.

"Where the heck are we going at two in the morning, Paris?" I said, feeling the walls for the door out of here. Paris grabbed me by my wrist again and pulled me out through what I assumed was the doorway. We went through the dimly lit hallways of the Ditch until we arrived at Gertie's room, and Paris banged on the door.

Gertie opened the door for us, quietly rushing us in and closed the door behind d us.

"So Ava, I hear you've taken a liking to this boy that just arrived," Gertie said with a mischievous smirk.

My eyes widened at her words and I almost flung myself across the room to force my hand over her mouth. "I don't like him, never have, never will, and I have no reason to!"

"That's not what your friend there told me." She nodded her head up towards Paris who stood there with a shadowed look and crossed arms.

"What are we here for, Paris? I thought your pompous ass wasn't on my side and didn't want to talk to me, hm?"

"I never said any of that, don't twist my words!" She quietly yelled.

"I can answer that question, Ava!" Gertie exclaimed, excitedly. She scurried behind a dark red sheet draped in front of what seemed like yellow light and Paris an I heard mumbling, fast footsteps, and small bits of clattering. She returned after a minute or so, pulling the sheet back open to reveal the kid from yesterday.

I was almost dumbfounded by how different he looked now that he had healed slightly.

**You know the drill kiddies, now I need some feedback!**


End file.
